Cybernetics and the Human Body
January 23rd, 2040: Cybernetics and the Human Body: From War, to Science and Beyond - An excerpt of Dr. Zuhur Abdo's keynote presentation to the Global Senate Association for the Advancement of Humanity's summit on Cybernetics and Genetic Modification. Geneva, Switzerland. Hello everyone, and welcome to Switzerland. Has everyone gotten the yodeling out of their system? *laughter* That's my one joke for the presentation, so I made sure to knock it out of the park. *more laughter* I'm here today to talk to you about Cybernetics. I suspect at least some of you have read my publications, or there probably wouldn't be an audience today. There's been a lot of controversy over the last few months since enhanced athletes were banned from both the Olympics and I'd like to help set the record straight on what it means to be transhuman in this day and age. What I'd like to do first is talk a little bit about the history of cybernetics, and then touch on their impact on modern culture. I think it's important to understand where these advancements came from if we're to understand where they're going. Cybernetics, for the purpose of this talk, is the removal of a human limb, organs or tissue and the replacement of it with a machine system. While idealized in early science fiction in the 20th century it wasn't until the early 21rst century did any significant advancements begin to appear in the field, predominantly due to the rise of aggression from the United States in the Middle East. Due to many "terrorists," a poor word choice at best, using Improvised Explosive Devices to combat the better equipped United States Soldiers, the US quickly found they had a surplus, if you will, of those wounded to the various extremities. The Army took on a mandate to try and return wounded soldiers to either active duty or, barring that, give them a normal life back stateside. While regular prosthetics had come a long way in the decade prior to 2013, they still couldn't function as a replacement limb. Following the withdrawal of the US from both Iraq and Afghanistan, and built on a campaign from the US Military to try to improve their domestic image, significant funding was put into the development of a brain/computer interface to allow for cybernetics such as had only been previously seen in Hollywood films. It wasn't initially successful. Feedback from the devices tended to cause migraines, fatigue, depression and mental instability in the patients; a far cry from what the military had set out to do. Weight of the devices, coupled with a short battery life on the mechanical aspects meant that the project was almost scrapped. It was only the widespread development of carbon nanotubes, and the later discovery of fusion energy that really set the technology in motion. It had taken seven years of failures, testing and nearly having funding pulled several times, but in 2020 the first fully cyberware prosthetics began to roll off the assembly line. The first high profile cybernetic soldier was Daimon Arcos. If that name isn't familiar to you, then this should be. Yes, the former Georgian Soldier was recruited by the Consortium in 2032 and took the mantle of Bishop 10 shortly thereafter. The story behind Bishop 10 becoming the face of a cyberwared person is an interesting one. While much of his history pre-Consortium remains classified, we do know that he operated as a wet operative for the Georgian Intelligence Services and was part of a joint US/Georgian operation that resulted in him being awarded an Honorary Silver Star which came with a bonus package: The loss of an arm, leg and severe trauma to much of his upper torso and face. The full extent of his injures have never been made public, but what is known is that he was brought to the US and was extensively "repaired" with cyberware. Everything else is just conjecture. What we do know is that Bishop 10 is by far the most commonly known transhuman with over 40% of his body augmented in some way. Bishop 10's successful cyberware implants led to many injured veterans receiving similar treatment as the Bishop. It wasn't long before another complication arose, when depression and suicidal tendencies began to appear in heavily augmented veterans. Many began to view their machine limbs as making them less than human, and coupled with the severe PTSD common in soldiers who had served in the Middle East, led to a rise in soldiers rejecting the implants. The US Army responded by putting in place extensive psychological testing, along with a psychoanalysis of all candidates. This testing, coupled with realistic looking implants that replaced the inorganic looking original devices almost eliminated the psychological problems that appears in early test subjects. In the years following, Daimon became a visible, if silent, public figure for cybernetic implants. Following his recruitment by the Consortium he seemingly vanished from the public eye, but the impact this foreboding figure had cannot be understated. Daimon represented that even in the face of crippling injury and personal disfigurement, life continues, through the wonder of cybernetics, and even someone who lost two of his four limbs could go on to become one of the most well-known special wet operatives in the world of international peacekeeping. Now, let's move on to the technical aspects of- *END TRANSCRIPT* Category:Cybernetics Category:Daimon Arcos